[Peace-discuss] Fw: Phone Plot Men Have Links to Intelligence Community

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From: <moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG>
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Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 12:50 PM
Subject: Phone Plot Men Have Links to Intelligence Community


> Landrieu Phone Plot: Men Arrested Have Links to
> Intelligence Community
>
> By Sahil Kapur
> Raw Story
> January 27, 2010
>
> http://rawstory.com/2010/01/men-charged-attempting-bug-landrieus-office-intelligence-links/
>
> WASHINGTON
>
> Two of the three men arrested on Monday along with
> "ACORN pimp" James O'Keefe for "maliciously tampering"
> with Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) phones in her New
> Orleans office have ties to the United States
> intelligence community.
>
> The three accused by the FBI of "aiding and abetting"
> O'Keefe are Stan Dai, Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel.
> O'Keefe is 25, and the other three are 24.
>
> Dai's links to the intelligence community appear to be
> particularly strong. He was a speaker at Georgetown
> University's Central Intelligence Agency summer school
> program in June 2009, and is also listed as an
> Assistant Director at the Intelligence Community Center
> of Academic Excellence at Trinity in D.C.
>
> The university's president Patricia McGuire told The
> Associated Press that it promoted careers in
> intelligence but denied that it trains students to be
> spies.
>
> The Trinity program received a "$250,000 renewable
> grant from the U.S. Intelligence Community" upon
> launching in 2004, according to its Web site. The
> program's goals are stated:
>
> The IC CAE in National Security Studies Program was
> established during 2005 in response to the nation's
> increasing need for IC professionals who are educated
> and trained with the unique knowledge, skills and
> capabilities to carry out America's national security
> objectives.
>
> The CIA summer school packet also notes that Dai
> "served as the Operations Officer of a Department of
> Defense irregular warfare fellowship program."
>
> standai Landrieu phone plot: Men arrested have links to
> intelligence communityDai has been an undergraduate
> fellow with the Washington-based national security
> think tank Foundation for the Defense of the
> Democracies (FDD), according to his College Leadership
> Program award biography at the Phillips Foundation --
> as Lindsay Beyerstein first reported.
>
> FDD claims that it's partly funded by the US State
> Department. Its Leadership Council and Board of
> Advisers comprise many high-profile conservative
> politicians and public figures -- including former
> House speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-
> CT), Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, Rep. Eric
> Cantor (R-VA), former Bush official Richard Perle and
> columnist Charles Krauthammer.
>
> Dai traveled to Israel for two weeks in 2004 on an FDD-
> sponsored trip, the Daily Herald reported. "All
> expenses (room, board and travel) will be assumed by
> FDD," FDD's Web site said of its Israel program.
>
> A host of FDD testimonials from Academic Fellows reveal
> that many fellows have traveled to Israel for training
> and field trips. The Foundation says the course
> includes "lectures by academics, diplomats, military
> and intelligence officials, and politicians from
> Israel, Jordan, India, Turkey and the United States."
>
> FDD proclaims that "Like America, Israel is at the
> forefront in the war on terrorism." Further explaining
> its interest in Israel, FDD declares:
>
> fdd Landrieu phone plot: Men arrested have links to
> intelligence communityBoth the United States and Israel
> are democracies, and both face the same enemy. It is
> this connection between Israel's experience and the
> future of the United States that is the essence of the
> Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
>
> One FDD testimonial, by 2004-2005 fellow Dr. Cathal J.
> Nolan, highlighted the group's bond with high-level
> intelligence and government officials in Israel:
>
> The access which FDD provided to top government
> officials--and to academic, police, security service,
> and intelligence experts at the highest levels--was
> truly remarkable. I know of no other foundation or
> fellowship program which is able to provide so much
> top-level access and first-hand intelligence and
> security service information in so compact a form, or
> in such an intellectually stimulating environment.
>
> The CIA and Office of Director of National Intelligence
> have both told Politico that despite Dai's evident
> connections to the intelligence community, he never
> officially worked for them.
>
> Dai's co-conspirator Robert Flanagan is currently
> seeking a Master of Science degree from the Missouri
> State University's (Fairfax, Virginia) Defense and
> Strategic Studies program, according to his LinkedIn
> profile (which was captured by Beyerstein before it was
> taken down Tuesday.)
>
> The DSS Web site description affirms its connections to
> "the intelligence community":
>
> The program's location also provides DSS with the
> opportunity to draw adjunct faculty members from the
> top ranks of government, the defense industry, and the
> intelligence community.
>
> flanagandai Landrieu phone plot: Men arrested have
> links to intelligence communityThe program also appears
> to have a close relationship with the conservative
> establishment. Inside Higher Ed reported in 2007 that
> the program's "full-time faculty of three and its nine
> affiliated lecturers tend to come mainly from positions
> in Republican administrations and conservative-leaning
> institutions."
>
> It appears to be an elite program and one Facebook
> group bills it as ardently conservative on national
> security and foreign policy issues. "We Do Defense
> (far) Right!" it proclaims:
>
> Are you preparing for the inevitable U.S. v. ChiCom
> War? Are you praying every night for the employment of
> Ballistic Missile Defense? Do you think nuclear weapons
> are important for American security? Do you think MAD
> is a trashy liberal theory? Are you educated by great
> professors with real life experience?
>
> Then this is the place for you.
>
> Flanagan has also blogged for the conservative Pelican
> Institute until as recently as this month. In one post
> last month, he highlighted criticisms directed at
> Landrieu.
>
> Flanagan's father, William Flanagan, is currently the
> acting US Attorney for Louisiana's western district.
> But because Flanagan was arrested in the state's
> eastern district, his father will not oversee his
> prosecution.
>
> The New Orleans newspaper NOLA.com, which first broke
> the news, reported that "one of the four was arrested
> with a listening device in a car blocks from the
> senator's offices." The FBI's affidavit noted that
> Flanagan and Basel were in the building with O'Keefe,
> and a federal law enforcement official confirmed to AP
> that Dai was the one in the car.
>
> The New York Times pointed out that "[t]he [FBI]
> affidavit did not accuse the men of trying to tap the
> phones, or describe in detail what they did to the
> equipment." But the optics of the situation have led to
> suspicions that bugging Landrieu's phones was their
> intention.
>
> Although Robert Flanagan's Facebook page has been
> removed, the other three all list each other as
> "friends" on the social networking site.
>
> large acorn sting pimp Landrieu phone plot: Men
> arrested have links to intelligence communityAll four
> of the men arrested in the plotMonday have well-
> documented conservative ties, The Associated Press
> revealed. Three of the suspects wrote for conservative
> publications while in college, and Flanagan has written
> for the national Pelican Institute.
>
> Flanagan's blog, flanaganreport.com, has also been
> deleted, but some of its content can still be found in
> Google's archives. In one post, Flanagan criticized
> former vice president Dick Cheney.
>
> Joseph Basel was listed by the University of Minnesota,
> Morris in 2005 as one of its fifteen "College
> Republicans."
>
> The publications O'Keefe and Basel wrote for while in
> college allegedly received money from the nonprofit
> education foundation The Leadership Institute.
>
> "Leadership Institute Vice President David Fenner said
> in a phone interview this morning that the group had
> 'informal, above-board relationships' with both James
> O'Keefe and Joseph Basel when they were college
> students," Talking Points Memo reported Wednesday.
>
> Landrieu's office released the following statement on
> the incident, according to NPR:
>
> Because the details of yesterday's incident are part of
> an ongoing investigation by federal authorities, our
> office cannot comment at this time.
>
> The community activist group ACORN slammed O'Keefe, who
> angered them after unveiling their ostensibly dodgy
> practices. "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving
> soul," the group posted on its Twitter feed.
>
> The incident "is further evidence of his disregard for
> the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda," ACORN CEO
> Bertha Lewis told AP in a statement.
>
>
> Additional research provided by Ron Brynaert
>
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